Your negotiating team met with the employer on December 4 and 5 to continue non-monetary negotiations and are pleased to report that we made significant progress. Nearly all non-monetary items have been resolved, and we will be able to complete them and move on to monetary bargaining early next year.
Improvements won in the latest round of bargaining include:
- Illness Leave: A doctor’s note is no longer mandatory after three days of absence. Though the employer may request one, it is not an automatic requirement.
- Seniority: Will now be based on date of hire and not on number of hours worked. Using hours of work was inequitable and negatively impacted members who have taken maternal or parental leave, taken illness or injury leave, or had reduced schedules due to caregiving responsibilities. Women and other equity seeking groups were disproportionately impacted and this improvement ensures more equitable treatment.
Though we were unable to have our proposed workload appeal language fully adopted, the employer introduced a process for addressing workload issues lasting longer than 30 days. The language of the process mirrors our proposed language with additional reporting requirements. We see this as a step towards addressing member concerns.
There are two significant outstanding non-monetary items:
- Layoff, Recall, and Abolishment Language: We are working to ensure layoffs occur by order of seniority and that severance provisions are aligned with faculty agreements.
- Hours of Work: Currently under discussion.
Monetary proposals will be tabled at our next meeting with the employer which will be early next year. If you have any questions or concerns before then, please reach out to a member of the negotiating team.
AUPE NEGOTIATING TEAM – MEDICINE HAT COLLEGE
Brittany Gold
bachmier.brittany@gmail.com
Kimberly Dirk
kim.schnare@gmail.com
Dylan Seitz
dylan.seitz.6@gmail.com
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF
Christian Tetreault Negotiations
c.tetreault@aupe.org